Farmers still have time to be counted in the 2017 Census of Agriculture, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural StatisticsService (NASS). Although the first deadline has just passed, NASS will continue to accept Census information through the spring to get a complete and accurate picture of American agriculture that represents all farmers.
“We thank everyone who has completed their Census to date. We currently have a return rate of just over 40 percent of the 3 million Census questionnaires mailed last fall,” said NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer. “A lot is at stake if producers are not represented in this data. Census data have and will continue to influence important decisions for American agriculture. The data will affect every operation and every farming community at some point, whether it be through farm policy, disaster relief, insurance or loan programs, infrastructure improvements, or agribusiness setup. There is accuracy and strength in numbers, which is why NASS is committed to giving producers every opportunity to respond.”
While again urging the Department of Transportation to grant agricultural haulers a waiver and limited exemption from the electronic logging device mandate, Farm Bureau in recent comments responded to the department’s efforts to provide clarity to the 150-air mile agricultural commodity exemption and the hours of service regulations.
AFBF’s Andrew Walmsley, director of congressional relations, explained the intent of the electronic logging device mandate and what it means for agriculture in a recent RFD-TV segment. Most farmers and ranchers should be exempt from the ELD mandate because they can claim covered farm vehicle status, but drivers who haul livestock, live fish and insects are likely to fall under the requirements.
The “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP-21) was signed into law in July 2012, and it included changes to the exemptions that farmers had for hauling agricultural commodities to and from market as they related to for a Commercial Driver’s license, these additional exemptions were allowed when the farmers operated a “Covered Farm Vehicles” as defined in the act.
When planning for the sale of their crops, grain farmers should use “realistic optimism.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation is calling on all members of Congress to support House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte in his goal of including the AG Act in the Securing America’s Future Act.
The nation’s system of laws and regulations is filled with policies that come from good intentions but, when applied without enough thought or input, don’t make sense in their implementation. One example that agriculture faces right now is the requirement that truck drivers install electronic logging devices in their vehicles. By switching from paper records to the electronic devices, it’s supposed to be easier to keep truckers honest about not going over the hours of service limits.
After rebounding slightly in 2017, net farm income in 2018 is expected to fall to $59.5 billion, a 12-year low, according to the Agriculture Department’s most recent 2018 Farm Sector Income Forecast from the Economic Research Service. If realized, this would be the lowest net farm income since 2006 and would represent a decline of 6.7 percent from USDA’s 2017 projection.
“The budget deal approved by Congress and signed by President Trump today includes a number of important agricultural provisions that will help America’s farmers and ranchers and support food security for all Americans,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall in a 
It was typical day at the Lynchburg Regional Animal Health Laboratory of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Veterinarian John Moody necropsied two calves from the same farm. The farm reported that three of four calves in a pen, all different ages, had died on the same day. Two of the calves were submitted to the laboratory for a necropsy, an animal autopsy, in hopes of determining the cause of death.
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